Feral
by Brightgemini
Summary: After believing his wife dead for eight years, Cutter naturally has a hard time wrapping his head around Helen being alive, however it seems being alive isn't the only curve ball Helen has to throw at him. When Helen escapes back through an anomaly and leaves an eight year old child stranded with the ARC team, Cutter has to try to pick up the pieces. Set in early season 1.
1. Chapter 1

**Just an idea I've been playing around with for an idea. Hope you like it.**

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Helen was alive. That alone was a lot to wrap his head around after eight years. While she had been figuratively and, apparently, literally haunting him, he had never quite believed that she was still with them, not after eight years in the Permian Era and then, even though he had seen her on the other side of the anomaly, he had trouble processing it, nothing about being there had felt real, least of all her. No, she had become real again when Lester's men had dragged her out of the basement of that house, dripping wet and furious, launching her back into his barely rebuilt life like a molotov cocktail. And what came next? Well that had thrown his whole world upside down.

The child had screamed as they dragged her from the basement, a raw, furious scream, lips pulled back over her gums like the snarl of a wild animal as she writhed in her captor's arms. She didn't look like a wild animal now, he noted, watching her carefully, she looked small, dirty, and lost in a mane of tangled dark hair. She looked, dare he say it, about eight years old. It was hard to say for sure, she was terribly skinny, which made her look somehow both smaller and older than she likely was, but personally Nick was pretty sure she was eight. He had been sure since the moment he'd seen her eyes, his eyes, staring back at him with more rage than he was sure he'd ever felt.

They had shut her in a room not unlike the one Helen had been in, with a couple chairs and a table, but she had opted to occupy the darkest corner of the room. The one furthest from the door, he noted, arguably the most defensible position she could take, though to his knowledge there was no interrogation in store for her, just medic who they probably should have called in hours before when she'd arrived the day before but hadn't had the time to. They had been a little preoccupied with Helen and the Dodo Birds and Tom… poor, stupid Tom. In all the excitement they had almost forgotten that Helen had escaped through the anomaly without the child, leaving her at the mercy of Lester's government scientists and stuffy policies.

"Its good to see she's calmed down." He glanced away from the viewing room window long enough to see Captain Ryan enter the room. The military man gave him a quick apologetic look before turning his attention to the girl on the other side of the glass. "She was screaming something awful when we brought her in."

"She's scared." Cutter replied flatly, "We have no idea if she's ever even been in an era where humans existed before."

"You think she was born out there?" Ryan raised an eyebrow, "On the other side of the anomaly?"

"Given her behavior I'd say it's highly likely." He nodded grimly.

Ryan mirrored his nodding, "It's a good thing the medics are here to check her out then… if she'll let them."

As if on cue, the door inside the room cracked open just wide enough for a young man dressed as a paramedic to slip inside. The child sprang up into a crouching position and growled, literally growled, at the intruder. The medic faltered, unsure eyes darting towards the dark glass that hid them from view, but to his credit, he regained his composure quickly. Setting his kit aside, he crouched down so as to appear less threatening and held his hands out towards her like he was showing her they were empty.

"Hello there Sweetheart." He said softly, "I'm Mike. I'm just going to check you over and make sure you're okay, alright?"

The girl eyed him warily, lips curled back over her teeth in a threatening manner as he tried to approach. Cutter frowned as the medic continued towards the child, "She doesn't look too keen on that."

"I'm sure he knows what he's doing, Professor." Ryan insisted.

As soon as he said it, the girl proved him wrong. As the medic reached towards her, she suddenly lunged forward, snapping her teeth like a dog, causing the medic to jerk back, landing on his rear end with a look of fear etched on his face as the girl continued towards him. Cutter was out the door before he even really gave thought to what he was going to do, ignoring Ryan's protests and flinging the door open, "Hey! Don't do that!"

Both the child and the medic froze and stared at him wide eyed, which he supposed was a reasonable reaction to the sudden, loud appearance of a strange Scottish man. Recovering first, the medic scrambled away from the girl, ducking his head, "Sorry…"

"Not you. You're fine." Cutter resisted the urge to rolled his eyes, not wanting to take his gaze away from the animal-like child who had shrunk back into the corner as she recovered from the shock of his entrance. "Mike, you can go. I don't think she's ready to see you."

Nodding numbly, the young man scrambled to his feet, ducking around Cutter to get out the door. The girl watched him go with a dark look in her eyes, though Cutter could have sworn she looked a little relieved, and when her eyes settled back on him, there was something different about her gaze. If he had to guess, he would have said that the child recognized him, which was unsurprising if she'd been raised by Helen, she'd probably seen pictures of some sort of him. She still looked wary, he noted, but there was a little spark of curiosity there as well. Somebody knocked on the window and the girl tensed up, growling. It was likely Ryan, he guessed, warning him to get out of the room, but he held up his hand to silence them.

Closing the door behind him, he crouched down similar to the way the medic had done, but made no move towards her. Instead he focused on keeping his voice soft and quiet as he spoke to her, "You know, you weren't very nice to Mike. He just wants to help you and I think you scared him pretty good."

The girl said nothing in return, which didn't surprise him, as far as they knew she had yet to say a single intelegable word, though he couldn't imagine Helen of all people wouldn't teach her language. She also gave no indication that she understood what he was saying to her, but there was something about the scowl on her face that felt schooled to him. The knocking came again, eliciting the same reaction from the child and earning whoever was on the other side an eye roll from Cutter, but this time he got back to his feet, giving the girl a "one minute" gesture and slipping out of the room.

The viewing room was far more crowded when the returned to it as it seemed Claudia, Lester, and Stephen had joined Ryan in gawking at their odd guest. Much like the child, Lester scowled at him as he entered, "Trying to contract rabies, are we?"

"She doesn't have _rabies_." He huffed, annoyed at being dragged back to this side of the glass, "She's just a little spirited."

"Well frankly if the paramedics can't take a look at it, we can't rule anything out." Lester retorted lazily, "I hear it bites."

"She." Cutter corrected, not bothering to try and keep the annoyance from his voice, "She's a girl."

"You sure about that?" He raised an eyebrow, "She looks more like George of the Jungle to me."

"What are we going to do with her?" Claudia wondered aloud, watching her through the window with her arms hugged around herself, like the girl's tattered clothing was making her cold just by looking at it. "We can't keep her in there."

"Why not?" Lester questioned, "I'm sure Helen had her sleeping in much worse places."

"It's cruel." Claudia countered, giving her boss a disapproving look which he all but shrugged off.

Cutter turned towards the window, thinking for a moment before he announced, "I'm taking her home with me."

"Excuse me?" Stephen piped up, giving him an incredulous look.

"I'm taking her home." He repeated, his expression daring Stephen to argue with him.

"Why?" Stephen demanded in return.

"Because she's _mine_!" He declared.

"You don't know that!" Stephen protested, "You don't even know that she's Helen's."

He gave Stephen an incredulous look, motioning at the girl through the glass, "Look at her! She… she looks like me!"

"She looks _pissed off_!" Stephen snapped, then hesitated and added, "And she looks like Helen."

"I'm not leaving her here." Cutter warned.

Stephen scowled, "And how exactly do you plan on getting her there?"

"It doesn't matter." Lester announced before he could even try to answer that, "She's not leaving the premises until she's had a full health evaluation."

"How the hell do you think you're going to get that done?" Cutter demanded.

"Simple. We're going to drug her. Unless you have a better idea?" Lester challenged, taking Cutter's angry silence as submission, "I didn't think so."

"Well then I'm staying here with her." He spat, at a loss for other options.

"Fine." Lester agreed, stalking towards the door, "Have a camp out in the nurse's office. I don't care."

"You're insane." Stephen accused, following Lester out, the door banging shut behind him.

Claudia was still watching the girl, he noted, joining her again. They let the silence hang between them for a long moment before Claudia ventured, "Do you really think she's yours?"

"I do."

Claudia was quiet for another long moment, seemingly mulling something over in her head, then turned on her heel, heading for the door and paused with her hand on the handle. She seemed to deliberate for another few seconds before offering, "She has your eyes."

He watched her leave in silence, not turning his attention back to the child until he heard the door click shut. Trust Helen to show up after eight years and throw his whole life out of whack...

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**Reviews are appreciated :)**


	2. Chapter 2

The sedatives made the kid sick, which he felt awful about but, he guessed, was largely why they let him stay in the room with her, once she was awake he was the only one willing to get close enough to push the garbage can over to her every time she started gagging up stomach bile. It didn't really surprise him that there was nothing much for her to vomit up, her physical exam had concluded that she was a little malnourished, though otherwise in good health, and any attempts to tempt her into eating anything they offered her failed. The medics had hooked her up to an IV while she was unconscious, hoping to get some fluids and calories into her, but upon waking she had promptly torn it out and then thankfully been too weak to fight having her arm bandaged.

She was looking pretty sorry for herself now, pale and a little shaky, laying on her side in the hospital bed with one wrist cuffed the the side rail so she couldn't escape. Even if she did, someone would report her straight away, he mused, a lone eight year old was an odd enough sight in the Home Office, forget one with little smears of blood on her adult sized hospital pajamas from the IV incident. And he doubted that she would get too far while nauseous and still half sedated, a fact he'd pointed out, but Lester insisted on restraining her anyways.

She did look a little more normal now, he noted, she'd been given a sponge bath by one of the female medics and Claudia had kindly offered to give her hair a bit of a comb while she was out, though there had really only been so much she could do with the tangled mess without a proper wash and trim. Even the giant pajamas made a huge improvement on her previous combination of what appeared to be a small adult's t-shirt over what may have actually been jeans made for a young boy, but were several sizes too big and held up by a piece of cord. Instead of a wild animal, she was beginning to look more like a little kid having a sick day and, he realized, incredibly like the childhood photos he'd seen of Helen.

They were both, it seems, startled out of their thoughts by a knock on the door, the child sending a weak glare in the general direction of the sound. He couldn't fault her for that he decided as he spotted Lester through the windowed portion, motioning for him to step outside. He hesitated, glancing at the girl, but reluctantly complied, slipping out the door and greeting the government man with a tired grunt, "Lester."

Lester wrinkled up his nose at the sight of him, "Good lord, you look awful."

"Thanks." Cutter retorted flatly, rubbing his hands over his face, "Didn't sleep much, the drugs made the kid sick."

"Well they wouldn't have been necessary if she wasn't such a hellion."

Lester's tone was defensive and maybe undercut with a hint of remorse, but Cutter wasn't in the mood to try and decipher the purposefully restrained emotions of the other man, so instead he just glared at him, "Lester, I'm very tired and waiting for test results that confirm whether or not I'm a father, so forgive me if I'm a little short on patience, but was there something you wanted?"

"Ah, yes." cleared his throat and nodded, producing a previously unseen bag from behind his back and holding it out to Cutter.

"What…?" Cutter wasn't sure exactly what he had been expecting, but the tired blue astronaut print backpack dangling from Lester's fingers wasn't it. He took the bag hesitantly, opening it up and poking through the contents.

"Hand-me-downs." Lester clarified, "Mostly things my boys out grew but there's the odd thing in there that my wife bought for Elizabeth to grow into."

Cutter stared at the bag dumbly for a moment before nodding, "Um, thank you."

"Right, well, having a child running around here will be bad enough. Least we can do is ensure she's not naked." Lester huffed, though his excuse sounded lame even to Cutter's over tired brain.

Maybe it sounded lame to Lester as well because he sniffed and stalked off towards his office without waiting for a response. Cutter glanced from Lester's retreating back to the t-shirt with the little cartoon alien that he had in his hand with a bemused look that Claudia matched as she approached him in the hall, "Are those from Lester?"

"Strictly speaking I think his kids are the ones who wore them," Cutter joked, nodded, "But yes, he's donated them to my cause."

"How unusually kind of him." Claudia chuckled, then sobered, "How is she?"

"Well…" He rubbed the back of his neck, "She was sick most of the night, won't eat a thing we offer her, and she ripped out her IV about a minute after waking up."

"And you were up all night with her." She stated it like it was obvious and, well, given Lester's comment, it very likely was.

"I was that." He admitted a little sheepishly.

He thought she might scold him, he'd certainly had enough comments from others over the past twelve hours to get the sense that most people were less than impressed with his choices regarding this matter, but instead Claudia gave him a kind look, "Alright, why don't you go lay down a while on that spare bed in there and I'll take over sitting up with her for a bit?"

He couldn't help a slight smile, "Thank you, but you don't have to do that."

"It's no trouble." She insisted, "I sit in with my niece when she's sick all the time. And when she's feeling better, I brought some things that may interest her a little more than cafeteria meatloaf."

His smile widened a little as she showed him the tupperware of fresh fruit and veggies she had stashed in her purse, "Claudia Brown, you're… you're a good person."

"I do my best." She returned his smile with gentle one of her own, holding the door open for him before following him in. The girl regarded them warily as they entered the room, eyes darting from him to her in such a way that he could almost hear the question.

"This is Claudia." He explained, his tone kind, but firm, "She is very nice and has agreed to keep you company while I get some sleep. I would very much appreciate it if you would be nice to her, okay? I'm going to be right over there."

As usual, the girl gave no indication that she understood him beyond eyeing Claudia with slightly narrowed eyes, which, to Claudia's credit, didn't appear to phase her much. She smiled and settled herself in the chair that he had left near, but out of arm's reach of, the bed, "I'm sure we'll be just fine."

"Okay." He chuckled, dropping the backpack by the door, heading over to the far side of the room to the unused bed and drawing the curtain closed for privacy. Making himself as comfortable as he could on the thin, rubber covered mattress, he closed his eyes and did his best to rest, though he doubted he'd actually manage sleep.

The room was quiet for a few minutes, only ambient sounds catching his attention like the buzz of the over head lights and the occasional sound of metal on metal as the girl shifted and her handcuff clanked against the guard rail. After a few minutes, he heard what sounded like Claudia's chair sliding a little closer and her whispered voice, like she was trying not to wake him.

"You know, Captain Ryan, he's the man who brought you here, he has a theory." She murmured, "He thinks that maybe you don't know how to talk."

There was a pause, like she was giving the girl a chance to reply, but of course, she didn't get any sort of response so she just continued on, "I don't think that's true. I think you're smarter than they're giving you credit for. You must be. Helen, your mother, she's a very… well, to be honest, I don't care much for her, but she's a very clever woman. And Cutter is a very clever man and he thinks he might be your daddy. If really he is, I can't imagine you're anything less than a little genius. And I can see in your eyes, you have a lot to say, but you don't trust us. That's okay, I understand. I wouldn't trust us either after the way we brought you here, but I hope you can understand, we didn't mean to hurt you."

Cutter couldn't help a smile as she paused again, giving opportunity for a response neither of them really expected, her ability to speak so kindly to a child who behaved in such a difficult manner impressed him. Of course, the child did not speak, but he did hear that little clacking sound associated with her changing position and he heard the sound of Claudia opening her tupperware and placing it on the side table.

"I brought you these in case you felt like eating." She whispered encouragingly, "We've got apples, strawberries, carrots, celery, and little tomatoes. Much better than meatloaf, huh? I'll leave them there for you if you want them..."

Cutter was vaguely aware that Claudia quietly continued her one-sided conversation with the girl, but he felt his exhaustion finally catching up with him and he drifted of to sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

**So sorry this took so long to get out, I got a little stuck while writing it! But it all worked out in the end. Hope you enjoy it!**

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Cutter woke to the sound of someone tapping on his window. No. Not his window, he realized, squinting at the brightly lit room around him, someone was tapping on the glass of the infirmary door. He pulled himself up off the bed, rubbing the cobwebs from his eyes and pulling back the curtain to see who was at the door. Claudia was already already there, opening the door for Lester, but his focus seemed to be more focused on Cutter as he motioned for them to step outside.

"You look worse than before." He commented as they followed him into the hall, "Perhaps you should try a shower next."

Cutter raised an eyebrow at the other man, "Is that why you woke me up? To comment on my appearance?"

"Not this time." Lester admitted dryly, holding up manila envelope he had with him to show them and then offering it to Cutter, "Congratulations, Professor, it's a girl."

Taking the envelope, Cutter peeked at the papers inside, trying his best to keep from grinning at the test results inside, "I told you she was mine."

"Yes, yes, what do you want, a medal?" Lester huffed dismissively, "You do realize that your life just got infinitely more challenging, right? Parenthood isn't something you can just do when it's convenient. Especially not single parenthood."

"Yeah, I know." Cutter protested.

"I doubt that." Lester continued with a frown, "I'll let you in on a little secret, Cutter, normal children are a pain in the ass when they're behaving themselves. And yours? Yours bites. And can't talk."

"I'm sure she can talk." Claudia chimed in defensively, "She clearly understands what people are saying to her."

"Right. Well, she won't talk." Lester amended, "And she doesn't have a name."

"We can give her a nickname until we find out her real one." Claudia countered, crossing her arms over her chest and giving him a defiant look.

"Honestly Lester, you should know better than to argue with Claudia by now." Cutter chuckled, shooting her an amused look, causing her to blush and look away. Sobering a little, he turned his attention back to Lester, "I want to take her home."

"Here we go again…" Lester groaned, rolling his eyes.

"She's my daughter," Cutter immediately argued, "She should be at home with me."

"And how do you plan on getting her there?" Lester huffed, "She screamed like a crazy person all the way here. You want to put her in another car?"

"I will… figure something else out." Cutter insisted.

"No, you will not." Lester countered, his voice stern, "That child is unpredictable and it is likely that Helen will come looking for her before too long. If and when that does happen, it would be preferable that she be somewhere a little more secure than your house."

"You want to use her as bait." Cutter accused, scowling at the government man.

"She is bait. I did not make her so." Lester pointed out, "Helen did when she left without her. Or perhaps I'm wrong. Maybe she won't come back for her."

That suggestion left a bitter taste in his mouth and part of him wanted to argue, but he couldn't quite manage it, instead he let his face settle into a grim look, "Who knows, Helen never wanted children."

"And you did, I take it?" Lester raised an eyebrow at him, but didn't bother waiting for Cutter's obvious answer, "Well, regardless, for the time being the medics have not agreed to release her yet and you have no way to transport her, so she's staying put. We can revisit the issue later if your wife doesn't come back for her."

Cutter and Claudia watched Lester retreat in silence for a minute before Claudia turned to him, "You wouldn't let her take her back, would you? Helen, I mean. It doesn't look like, well… it doesn't look like she did a very good job of caring for her."

"No, I don't imagine I would." Cutter admitted, thinking about the state the little girl was in.

"I'm going to the breakroom for a coffee. Care to join me?" Claudia offered with a kind smile.

He had the creeping suspicion that she agreed with Lester about his appearance and that if he agreed, her next suggestion would also be a shower. Her caring about his wellbeing brought a little smile to his face, "I would love to, but I think I should probably have a word alone with my daughter."

Claudia nodded in understanding, "I'll bring you one. Black, right?"

"Thank you." He smiled, giving her arm a little squeeze before heading back into the room. The look the girl was giving him was immediately unnerving, it was shockingly similar to the kind of look Connor wore when he'd done something he didn't want you to notice he'd done and her cheeks bulged out a little like perhaps she had something in her mouth. Searching for what that something might be, his eyes landed on the tupperware on the bedside table. The empty tupperware. He tried to hide the small smile that tugged at the corner of his lips as he took the seat beside her, apparently even a wild child couldn't resist a kind gesture from Claudia Brown. He sat silently for a moment, watching the girl, then raised an eyebrow at her, "I think you'd best swallow whatever you've got in there, Lass."

He was a little surprised when she did as she was told, forcing down whatever was left in her mouth, and he found himself hoping that it wouldn't be coming back up in the next few minutes. He decided against voicing that, instead offering her a small smile, "It was nice of Claudia to bring you those, wasn't it?"

By this point, he knew better than to expect a reply, though he paused for a few seconds on the off chance that she decided to offer one. When she remained quiet, he held up the envelope Lester had given him, "I, uh, I've got good news. Well, I think it's good news, anyhow. These are the test results we've been waiting for. According to this piece of paper, I am your father."

A small frown pinched her eyebrows together in a look that let him know that she had already knew that and maybe thought he was a little stupid for not knowing. That did make some sense, she had seemed to recognize him the day before and it wasn't hard to imagine that Helen may have mentioned him to her at the very least. Still, he couldn't help chuckling at her reaction, "I take it that's not news to you. Well, it's news to me."

He was looking for the next hopefully right thing to say when the door slammed open. The girl jumped at the sound, straining against the restraint on her wrist like she could get away from the person who had burst in on them. It was Connor, who he considered the least threatening person in the building, but the girl was looking at him with a clear look of panic.

"It's okay. That's just Connor, he's a friend." He assured her, reaching towards her to hold her hand comfortingly, then letting it fall limply on the bed's side rail as he realized that gesture may not have it's desired effect. She shrank back and stared at his hand blankly for a second, then back at Connor.

"Sorry." Connor had the good sense to look sheepish about his dramatic entrance, "I thought that door was going to be heavier. Erm… I know this isn't a great time, Professor, but we've had a call. Something about giant boars making a mess of a community center. Lester wants us to check it out. Abby and Stephen are already prepping the truck."

"I don't know if I should leave her." He frowned, glancing at his daughter, like she might give some indication of whether he should stay or go. She didn't.

"Anomaly call?" Connor jumped at the sound of Claudia's voice behind him, side stepping so she could squeeze past him into the room and offer Cutter a coffee in a to-go cup, "I saw Connor racing down the hall and thought paper was the way to go. Speaking of which, I didn't expect you'd be in today, Connor. How are you holding up?"

She made a good point, he hadn't been expecting to see Connor today either. After all, with what had happened to his friend less than twenty-four hours ago, none of the would have begrudged him for taking a few days off. Then again, maybe he wasn't ready to sit at home and deal with all that, he realized, as Connor didn't even try to the way he dodged her question, "I, uh, I just came to get the Professor, but he wants to stay with the kid."

"Oh?" Claudia raised an eyebrow at that, "No, Nick, you should go, they might need you. I can stay with her again. I think we're sort of becoming friends, aren't we?"

The girl gave no indication that she agreed, but she didn't growl at her either, which Cutter did actually find a little reassuring. He pondered on it for a moment, then sighed, "Alright, but if anything happens, call me and I'll come right back."

"We'll be fine." Claudia insisted, making a shooing motion towards the door.

For once doing as he was told, Cutter started following Connor out the door, pausing only for a second to look back and give an amused smile as Claudia resumed her post, chatting cheerfully to the sullen girl. Feeling a little better, he let the door close behind him.

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**Reviews keep me motivated :)**


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